My first introduction with computers was circa 1975 with mainframes, punch cards and programming simplistic slot machines with random fruits - e.g., cherries, lemons, oranges, and dollar signs - any combination of which would spin and land in three-pane lucky display screen.
It was also a time when I started to begin the journey through boyhood puberty and migrate into the ongoing evolution of manhood, personhood, humanhood, et al.
It was during this boyhood time while programming random numbers that I was first exposed to some fundamental concepts for achieving ongoing success with computers (e.g., managing the three levels of inputs, processing, and outputs). Thus part of my early picture included computer teachers and experts beating into my growing computer-awareness, “Garbage-in is Garbage-out.”
This became obvious, tactical, hand-felt wisdom with the early punch cards as those cards that were less than perfectly punched or less than perfectly flat were promptly spit out and rejected as unusable. Thus no amount of nifty logic or elegant programming referencing random fruits, berries, and/or dollar signs would ever see the light of day, but I digress.
Moving forward and years later - circa 2001 during days of explosive growth with DAWS (Digital Audio Workstations), project studios and technical advances across the digital audio spectrum, I enjoyed a conversation with an audio engineering expert and friend who candidly stated, “You know Chuck, in my business they call it turd polishing - if the client gives you inputs that are turds, no matter how much audio polishing you do, it’s still a turd.”
Yikes - new multimedia information and different take on conventional wisdom of garbage-in and turd-polished outs.
However, I was recently reminded that we can work with less than perfect inputs on creative level through some “happy accidents” and turn out good stuff.
Below is my point - visually. One of my clients handed me material that was 5-Diamond in spirit, nature of story, and content level, but it was a lot less radiant in the areas of digital resolution and digital quality.
This is a sensitive area and let me state that I honor all those on the digital paths. We all start somewhere and the spirit of this piece is to highlight how we can work creatively with things we think might not work, yet continue to work with what we have and move forward in getting better in using what we have to accomplish our mission at hand.
In this case, the client handed me 18 minutes of video footage from single-chip camera that was hand-shot (e.g., no tripods, no external mics, no lighting, no script - more akin to documentary style shooting), highly compressed as mpeg1 320×240, along with a handful of stills that were 1-2meg jpegs each.
Mission from client was, “Here is our story - how best can it be told effectively online?”
The answer is in the proof below with the ending video result.
Knowing neither the video or stills were commanding (digital resolution wise that is), we decided best to split the screen and use both videos and pics at the same time to tell the story, thus in part distract you from overly focusing in on either one at a time and seeing the granular pixations or other blemishes.
In the finished clip below, on one side you see pictures with the Ken Burns effect with panning and cropping. On the other side of the screen you see the video that corresponds to the story in the pics moving along.
Whenever either the stills or the video gets weird (e.g., quality of color, lighting, shakiness, etc) we then dropped an effect on that clip and voila - all of a sudden, things that seemed like mistakes (e.g., pictures out of focus) became awesome transitions that moved the story along with added effects and emotional dimensions.
But happy accidents with effects and visual polishing was only part of it.
The other part was how to sonically pull the viewer thru the story and hence the need to find some fun, offbeat music that could drive yet fit with the various live recordings of volunteers, pastor, and background beats -> Enter the soundtrack, “Gobble Gobble Funk” by you know who!
In the end, I think this piece works really, really well in telling the client’s story.
The last thing I will mention is the title, “Feeding the Angels Among Us.”
This was perhaps the hardest part about scripting and editing this piece. My customer who pays the bills is obvious, but his stakeholders and the constituents they dance with is something that is multilateral, highly diverse and commands respect from all levels.
Some how to say, “feeding the needy” seemed untruthful to those pictured here in this video. After all, these “stars” played a part in the role of life’s give-in-take and somehow there seemed to be a higher truth in naming the title, one that those standing in line, when viewing this clip, would also be proud of.
Which leads me to concept of - is it more blessed to receive or to give?
I don’t know but it seems like sometimes those of us who give can feel entitled to a little moment of self righteous - e.g., “Hey, I just did something for somebody - doesn’t that count for something, somewhere, on somekind of karmic scorecard?” - and I often wonder if the other person who receives isn’t really an Angel in disguise who isn’t silently saying, “Dude, if only you really knew - it is I who is willing to serve as your reminder that God gives us each different talents and skills. Thanks for sharing and best of success with your unfolding generosity of time, gifts, talents, investment in Highest Good, et al.”
In addition to installing and customizing Wordpress blogs for clients, I also am retained to do some “care and feeding” with blog content and here is a brief story of over doing it, but I think you’ll get a kick out of it.
It started a couple weeks back when one of my church clients asked me to post on their site the Red Skelton’s Pledge of Allegiance clip that is featured below. The part that is implied with such requests is, “and Chuck, can you also draft some copy that we can use to explain / build / position the clip” which is something I thoroughly enjoy doing.
I had watched this Red Skelton clip earlier in the day then went for a walk with the dog. Along our walk we met some movers from Russia and Serbia. They were taking a break and wanted to pet the dog, Kasha, so we got to chatting.
When we got to the part where I asked them about the conditions and economy in their countries and what they thought of the USA, they both stopped petting the dog. They both stood up, faced me directly, pulled the cigs out of their mouths, looked at me wild-eyed and said, “What happened to America? You know, you used to be something and meant something around the world…”
I knew exactly what they meant and explained that nobody I know is happy with the theft of our Republic by incompetent, corrupt leadership and corporate interests run a muck.
More on this “moving conversation” in upcoming blog post but when I got back home, I drafted the following for my client’s blog and sent it to the Pastor to preview and approve before going public with the copy and video. I confessed in my email that I “might have over done it” and here is what I originally wrote:
The Youtube clip below is from the Red Skelton Show that first aired on January 14th 1969 on CBS. Red’s Pledge has since been twice read into the Congressional Record of The United States and has received numerous Awards.
It is a POWERFUL reminder of truth, one which those in Washington seemed to have abandoned - e.g., sovereign powers with people-first and leaders-second and not Federal-leaders dictating to the people; freedom for all and the right to live one’s own life as one sees fit even if that includes home schooling; to live one’s life without threats and fear or deceit or lies about Weapons of Mass Destruction; justice and principles of dealing fairly with others which is sorely absent in political races where the drive to win at any cost dominates …
Regardless of political sensibilities, Red Skelton’s version of The Pledge of Allegiance is a reminder for each of us, I, me, committees of one, to get off our apathetic butts, stop complaining about the state of our world, our country, our lives, our economy, and go out and live the positive change God wants us to live and bring back the respect for this great country our forefathers worked so hard to earn.
It’s not too late to be the change, live the change, and kick some butt in a positive way, one that would make Red blush with pride when he looks down from Heaven and says to Our Father, “Yep - that’s them all right. We The People!”
The Pastor has great sense of humor and sent back very funny email:
“… you had me whoopin’ and hollerin’ in agreement with your sentiment… however, I feel the need to tone it down for the sensibilities of our intended e-viewers. The following is an edited version - Rated W for wimpy pastors! …”
Needless to say I edited the copy per his direction and this is what “officially aired” on their site:
This Youtube clip below is from the Red Skelton Show that first aired on January 14th 1969 on CBS. Red’s Pledge has since been twice read into the Congressional Record of The United States and has received numerous Awards. It is a POWERFUL reminder of truth.
But this got me to thinking some more - e.g., What else could Rated W mean? After all, anybody who ventures out to use new media and Web 2.0 technologies is anything but wimpy in my opinion - it takes real leadership and courage to venture into new waters, especially those that are not certain or clear, like blogging with one’s congregation.
Thus when the site was updated, I sent back the following email:
… edits done and home page is live :>) … i’d say Rated W = “Wow - Thanks for Sharing!”
Earlier today I posted the Elliott Scheiner audio clips and am now in the process of archiving the project files when I came across a handwritten note to myself -
Mono Wins
The note was written in the middle of the night when the computer was busy rendering the master files and was a reminder to me for the next morning as to where to pick-up and which files would ultimately get published and streamed on this web site.
The original recordings were 44.1khz stereo wave files and I did all the editing at this resolution yet knowing I was ultimately going to kick it down and go to the web with mp3 clips. Thus part of the compression issue became one of stereo vs mono and balancing finished compressed file size with server-bandwidth costs and audio-quality.
Consider the fourth clip - Part 4 of 4 - it was the largest master file weighing in at 212 megs as finished stereo wave cd quality. I knew I wanted FM-radio quality for the mp3 versions (not CD but not AM either) thus rendered all four wave files first to stereo 96kbits 44.1khz for a total file weight of 40.9 megs as compressed mp3s … then I rendered separate versions to mono 64kbits 44.1khz for total weight of 26.9 megs.
While the audio quality is slightly inferior, the mono version was the winner because most of the audio is speech - thus the need for preserving sonic spectrum wasn’t truly necessary except for the killer sonic bug at the beginning of each clip that features me on keys, Jeff Wells on Sax, and Kasha (my 19 month old Labrador Retreiver - or perhpas better stated, “my wife’s Lab …”).
Sonic branding is a term I first heard a couple years back when talking to a staff composer for one of the most successful Soap Opera’s on air. We were talking about his business and skills when he said, “You know Chuck, the best shows on TV have Sonic Brands - that signature ditty that you can hear from another room and know that someone in your house just tuned into Cheers, Seinfeld, Taxi, American Idol…”
He went on to add that from his perspective, not enough American corporate managers are even aware of the importance of this branding let alone using or managing it effectively.
Point noted and ever since our discussion, I’ve been mindful about developing and managing my own sonic brands as well as those for clients for whom I’m retained.
Previous to my discussion with composer friend, I had composed a neat ditty for many of the CoolTea and GoBoardRoom audio clips - one which I referred to internally as “Purple Guy” but when I found myself selling a variation of this mix to a client, I was then at a cross roads for developing a new, more updated, more me, kind of signature for ChuckingIt.com and ChuckScott.com branding.
Hence the ditty, aka Sonic Brand, you hear in the Elliott Scheiner clips.
Okay - here is a video clip that I did everything on - filmed, edited, recorded audio, photographed, special effects, compression, etc …
I had been working with my client earlier that day doing an audio meditation and had my camera in the car when Father Chip said, “Hey - lets go look at the church and I’ll show you some of the water damage we are working on” and so I gave him a mic with DAT recorder, grabbed the camera and voila - the resulting video.
I should also mention that I shot this during the summer of 2007 not knowing what I now know about setting up shots, using tripods, etc. (and it was the last time I would use a DAT recorder and went out and promptly replaced it with a new direct-to-smartcard portable disk recorder).
Thus it was really difficult in post to tell this story since a lot of the footage had camera shake from me walking around the grounds and in the church doing free-form shooting.
Thus my wife, Katie, created a little sign that hung on my desk during the editing process that said,
Wobbly = Still!!!
Which was my reminder to keep stripping out any shaky footage and replace with stills and then use keyframes with the pan-and-crop features to make the story move along.
Here is the lead copy on their site that sets up the clip -
“Take a tour of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral with Father Chip and Colleen … Filmed during the summer of 2007 and published in Feb 2008, this 13 minute clip takes you on a journey of the elusive source of the water damage that was being addressed during the recent renovations - enjoy!”
Do you know somebody who would love to learn the principles of mixing audio and video on a computer and produce Hollywood-like films from the comforts of home?
For less than twenty bucks, you can own (or gift) Ethan Winer’s Tele-Vision DVD which is packed with over three hours of audio/video educational content.
Below is a seven-minute promotional trailer on Youtube that Ethan recently created to augment the DVD description on his site and clarify the educational values packed into his DVD.
Essentially the DVD contains two music videos, plus three hours of additional content showing in detail how the videos were made.
The educational content on the DVD ranges from intermediate to advanced, split between on-camera technical explanations and screen-cap videos showing details of EQ, compression, reverb, etc. and other mixing decisions.
The tutorials cover both the audio and video aspects of production including video editing, green screens, lighting, using multiple cameras, and much more.
It’s not a beginner’s how-to guide for connecting a microphone to a sound card, but it will be useful to anyone who wants to see how a sophisticated video production is put together.
I’m thrilled to announce that my good friend Ethan Winer has just gone live with his latest video and DVD release.
Tele-Vision is an orchestral rock video by Ethan Winer that follows on the heels of his wildly acclaimed, “A Cello Rondo” - a video that has received critical acclaim and has exceeded over half-a-million downloads.
Tele-Vision is dedicated to the electric guitar and features original music written and produced by Ethan. His exciting soundtrack is mixed visually with an array of over 40 different Ethan’s on stage (via green screen technology) performing each of the instruments used in the score, timed exactly to the beat.
And would you like to take a guess at who did all the filming - yes, homeboy - some of you might even recognize some of my CoolTea event wardrobe being repurposed, like the multi-colored jacket, hats, glasses, etc.
This was a great summer filming and working with Ethan on his latest release. At 4:30AM this morning we went live with the CoolTea shopping cart, and by 11AM we had already sold several orders from around the country.
Not only is this a very entertaining DVD, but it is also jam-packed with hours of behind the scenes and making of sections that cover the principles behind audio and video editing on today’s PCs, plus interviews with guest performers like Ed Dzubak, three-time Emmy winning composer, who sat in on drums for this production.
This audio interview is approximately 33 minutes in length and an 7.6 meg mp3 file.
Some of the Themes Discussed in this Interview with Birgitte Include:
The global loss of vision and role of artists and poets
The media industry as a cultural force and its current cancerous state
Good money vs bad money and how Wall Street needs to change too
How Michael Angelo never would have made a David if he did media research first and the slippery slope of research metrics for those who lose touch with their art and audiences
Green Washing vs Blue Washing and the real job of media
A call for everybody to be active media consumers and aware
and how content is not king but is queen and perception is king
plus much more …
About Birgitte Rasine Birgitte Rasine, CEO, LUCITÀ Inc. The founder and primary driving force behind LUCITÀ, Birgitte Rasine is a writer, producer, journalist and a tireless thinker and innovator. Deeply committed to positive change in the media industries, she drives and personally oversees all of LUCITÀ’s major inhouse projects and initiatives, such as the recently published report The Colors of Perception and the upcoming Project Tsunami. A passionate speaker on socially conscious media and related topics, she has most recently spoken on a panel on social responsibility in the media at New York’s Stern School of Business, and gave a keynote on the topic at WIN 2004 in Geneva, Switzerland. She has been interviewed by NPR in the U.S., and the Australian national radio.
In line with her diverse media career that spans film production, journalism, publishing, marketing and public relations, Birgitte has worked with civil society, business, government and the scientific community. In her previous career, Birgitte wrote for two of the media industry’s top publications, The Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety. Her articles have also appeared in Business Week and Diálogo Mediterráneo. Prior to that, Birgitte was a visual effects coordinator, camera assistant, and electrician on Hollywood and independent feature films. She worked for companies such as PDI/Dreamworks, ILM/Universal Studios, HBO, and Disney, and credits them for giving her time in the trenches.
An award-winning poet, Birgitte speaks 5 languages and has lived in 6 countries. She holds a BA in Aesthetics of Film from Stanford University and has completed a professional graduate course in cinematography at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, and a professional masters degree program in International Relations at the Instituto Universitario Ortega y Gasset in Madrid, Spain.
My first introduction with computers was circa 1975 with mainframes, punch cards and programming simplistic slot machines with random fruits - e.g., cherries, lemons, oranges, and dollar signs - any combination of which would spin and land in three-pane lucky display screen. 
In addition to installing and customizing Wordpress blogs for clients, I also am retained to do some “care and feeding” with blog content and here is a brief story of over doing it, but I think you’ll get a kick out of it.
Earlier today I posted the 
